Esera Tuaolo

Esera Tavai Tuaolo (born 1968 July 11 in Honolulu) was a Hawaiian professional football player in the National Football League for nine years, including during the Super Bowl.

Early life

He is of Samoan ancestry, and was raised in poverty in a banana farming family. His father died when Esera was ten years of age.

Football career

He played for Oregon State University and was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He was selected in the 1991 NFL Draft. Nicknamed "Mr. Aloha", Tuaolo played nose tackle for several teams in his career, reaching the Super Bowl in 1998 while playing with the Atlanta Falcons. He also played for the Carolina Panthers, Jacksonville Jaguars, Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers during his career.

Homosexuality

In 2002, having retired from sports, he announced publicly that he is gay and lives with his partner, Mitchell Wherley, and their children. This made him the third former NFL player to come out, after David Kopay and Roy Simmons. He has since worked with the NFL to attempt to combat homophobia in the league and is a board member of the Gay and Lesbian Athletics Foundation.

Tuaolo currently lives in Minnesota with his life-partner, Mitchell Wherley, and their twins, son and daughter Mitchell Jr. and Michelle. In April, 2006, he testified at the State Legislature Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in opposition to an anti-gay-marriage bill. (summary of his testimony.)

In 2006, Tuaolo sang the national anthem at the opening ceremony of the Gay Games, a quadrennial Olympics-style event. Kopay administered the official's oath during the opening ceremony.

Tuaolo's autobiography, "Alone In The Trenches: My Life As A Gay Man In The NFL", was released in Spring, 2006. (ISBN 1-4022-0505-8)

External links

• Esera Tuaolo's Website
• Esera Tuaolo Bio at Greater Talent Network (Speakers Bureau)
• Outsports article
• ESPN article
• pridesource.com's bio

This article is based on a GNU FDL LGBT Wikia article: Tuaolo Esera Tuaolo

LGBT